1865, April 26: Surrender of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston at Durham Station, North Carolina, ends the Civil War in the east; slavery officially ends in South Carolina; the Freedmen's Bureau soon controls 300,000 acres of abandoned lands

1868, June 25: South Carolina is readmitted to the Union; South Carolina Assembly establishes the Land Commission to finance land distribution

1868-1877: South Carolina is subjected to congressional reconstruction; federal military units occupy the capital of Columbia

1877, April 10: President Rutherford B. Hayes withdraws the remaining federal troops from Columbia and former Confederate General Wade Hampton becomes governor; white “redemption” in South Carolina is complete.